Oil shortages. Energy crisis. War in the Middle East. Political scandals. Doomsday prophets pointing to Armageddon. Is this today? No, it’s the 1970s.

The dam of the Watergate scandal bursts, ending the career of President Richard Nixon, while hastening the ignoble end of the Vietnam War. The Yom Kippur War between Egypt and the Israel precipitates the Arab Oil Embargo, which creates an energy crisis with soaring gas prices and long lines at the pumps, daylight’s saving’s time pushed back to January, and the imposition of the national 55 mph speed limit. After "The Late Great Planet Earth" comes out, Comet Kohoutek, the Comet of the Century, contributes to uneasy feeling that these might be the end times.

Pastor Bill Renfrew comes back to his hometown Colter, Montana fresh from Bible college on a mission to save a holy remnant for God in America. He sets himself up a pedestal as he thinks he knows more than anyone else and he’s smarter than anyone else. To do things God’s way is to do things his way. Tapping into the angst and malaise of the times, he targets the vulnerable and the naive.

When Samantha Matijevic turns eighteen and enters Colter College, Pastor Renfrew snares this disoriented girl from a small town into his fold until she wises up. When Samantha Matijevic butts heads with stubborn Pastor Renfrew, he gets his pedestal kicked out from under him. When his followers attack him, because they don't like to see their "gods" sin, Pastor Renfrew blames the Colter Church Conspiracy.